Once in a Lifetime!
by XxMicky DolenzxX
Summary: Me, Lynda, 12 year old girl whos father is dead. I have no siblings. So I look up to my friends for help. So me, Chris, Gordie, Teddy, and Vern go on a search for a dead body. Sounds better when you read! Thank you!
1. A Begging

I arrived at the tree house that Verns older brother, Billy had built for him when he was 7. We had all helped a little bit.

Once... Twice... Three times I knocked. A small click came from inside and the hatch opened. I lifted myself up and saw the boys, well, without Vern, playing cards. No hey, no hi just "Hey, how do you know if a French man's been in your back yard?" Chris asked.

"Dude, I'm French, alright?" Teddy said.

"Your trash cans are empty and your dogs pregnant.". Chris, Gordie, and I burst out laughing for a minute.

"Come on you guys I'm French, okay?".

Chris knocked, Gordie took his last draw. "Twenty-nine." Chirs said.

"Twenty- two." Teddy said.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Gordie yelled as he threw his cards down.

"Oh! Ol' Gordies out! Ol' Gordie just bit the bag and stepped out the door! Ee-Ee-Ee!" Teddys laugh sounded like someone hammering in a rusty nail. He actually was in fact, the craziest guy we hung out with. His glasses, his burnt ear, everything about Teddy was "special".

"Screw." Gordie said.

I laughed a little.

Chris dealt the cards again. The boys had hardly began their game when a knock came on the hatch.

"That's not the secret knock!" Gordie said.

"Aww I forgot the secret knock!" a whiny voice said.

"Vern." we all said.

Chris lifted up the hatch and our chubby friend Vern lifted himself up.

"Oh.. Oh man you guys are not gonna believe this... Oh man this is so boss!.." Vern sat himself down.

"Oh god you guys! Wait'll you hear this... Wait'll you hear this!" he was sweating buckets and panting like a mad dog. "God.. Hold on.. Let me catch my breath.. I ran all the way from my house...".

"I ran all the way hoommmeeeee!" Chris sang.

"Doo wap! Doo wa oohh!" we joined.

"Just to say I'm sorrreeee!".

"Sooree oohhh!".

"You know what, forget it, I don't have to tell you guys nothin'." Vern said.

"Okay okay you guys, sh! What is it man?" Chris asked.

"Great! Okay you guys are not gonna believe this! Sinc..."

"I ran all the way hooommmee!".

"Screw you guys!" Vern looked disapointed.

"What is it man?" Chris said quietly.

"Okay can you guys camp out in my back field tonight? I mean, and tell your folks that?" Vern said quickly.

"Yeah, I guess so..." Chris said. "But my dad's on another mean streak you know?". Chris, the toughest, strongest, and the leader of our group had probably the worst life of all of us! Usually Chris would come in every week with a new burn or scratch. It was all because his father had gotten to drunk the night before.

"You've got to man! Sincerely! You are not gonna believe this! Can you Teddy?".

"Whatever, Vern-o.".

"Gordie?".

"I'm in.". I always felt so bad for Gordie, his older brother, Denny, had died in a jeep accident 4 months ago. His dad practicaly only cared about Denny. So Gordie would take every chance he could to get out of the house.

"What about you Lyn?" he asked.

I thought for a minute, but answered with a small "Yeah..".

"So what're you going on about Vern-o?" Teddy asked.

"I knock.".

"What? You freaking liar you aint got no pad hand! You didn't deal yourself no pad hand!" Teddy complained.

"Make your draw!" Chris said smartly.

Teddy took the first card off the deck, Chris leaned back for a pack of Winstons, Gordie had gotten into a magazine, and I was just to hot to care about anything!

"You guys wanna go see a dead body?" Vern asked.

We all looked at Vern. "W... What?" Gordie asked.

"Well, I was under my porch digging, you know?". We understood right then, Vern had buried a quart jar of pennies under neath his front porch and had drawn a "treasure map" to find it. Well, knowing Vern, you know he had already lost it. So now, Vern had been digging through his front porch for 9 months, man. 9 months.

There was a long, silence. Finally, Teddy decided to break it. "I know the back Harlow road! It comes through a dead end right by the Royal River! My dad and I used to go fishing for cossies out there!".

"Could a kid even get all the way out there?" Gordie asked. "I mean, it's really far.".

"Yeah, Brower must've just followed the train tracks all the way out in to Harlow!" Chris said.

"Yeah, then the train came along and.." Teddy smacked his fist into his palm. "El' Smacko.".

"Hey.. Hey you guys! I bet if we found Browers body, we could get in the paper!"Chris said.

"Yeah yeah we could even be on TV!" Teddy said excitedly.

"Sure!".

"We'd be heroes!".

"Yeah!".

"Gee you guys... I'm not so sure about this..".

"Well, why not?" Gordie asked.

"Billy'll know I already found out." Vern said.

I spoke up for the first time in the last 10 minutes.

"They're not gonna find out. Because it'll be us guys that find him. Not Billy and Charlie Hogan."I said. "You could probably get a metal on you Vern.".

He smiled, showing his bad teeth. "You think?" he asked.

"Yeah!".

His smile faded once again. What this time?

"What're we going to tell or folks?" he asked.

"Exactly what you said. Me, Chris, Gordie and Teddy will tell our parents that we'll be sleeping out in your back field. You tell yours that your gonna spend the night at Teddys. Then, if it takes long, we can say that we decided to take a hike and just got lost. Were rock solid until tomorrow night." I said.

"That's a plan and a half man." Chris said, and he gave me some skin.

"But if we actually find Brower, then Billy'll know we didn't camp out." Vern complained.

Teddy grabbed his shoulders. "No ones gonna care! Because everyone is goin' to be so jazzed, no one will care if we did lie or not!".

"Sure! Well my dad'll hide me anyway but it'll be worth a hiding!"Chris said.

"Heck yeah!" Teddy said.

"Were gonna do this... Teddy, you in?".

"Why wouldn't I be?".

"Gordie?".

"I'm in.".

"Lynda?" Chris looked at me.

I paused and just stared at him, lost in his big blue eyes.

_"Wait whoa! Snap out of it girl! You guys are just friends!... For now!" _I thought.

"Yeah, sounds cool.".

"Vern?".

He sort of just, looked at us, with these OH JEEZUS CHRIST DON'T MAKE ME GO! kinda way.

"Vern-o?" I said slowly.

"You guys I...".

"Come on Vern-o!" Chris said. He put him in a headlock.

"Vern-o! Vern-o come on Vern-oooo!" we chanted.

"Yeah alright... Alright.." he said.

"Woo hoo yeah!" we all shouted.

"So it's all set!" I asked.

"Completley! We'll leave sometime this afternoon." Gordie said.

"Great!".

We all went back to the card game, but we were all so excited about going to find this kids body, we couldn't take it.

I looked at my cards, then to the boys, back to the cards, back to the boys.

"Okay! You know what! I can't stand this!" I said as I threw my cards down.

"You wanna leave now?" Teddy asked.

"Heck yeah!" I said.

"Agreed!" Gordie said.

We put our cards up and all climbed out the treehouse.

After saying a quick see you later, we sped off towards our houses.


	2. KABLAM

I ran home as fast as I could. I made it home and unlocked the garage door so I could get in. The metal door swung up to reveal our 1957 Chevy Bel Air. Bright red, beautiful. It had been my dads car.

"Beautiful." I said under my breath.

I opened the door and practicaly burst through. I heard I Love Lucy playing on the TV. That meant my grandparents were in the living room. I didn't want to speak to my grandparents right now. If I let them talk to me, that meant I'd be late to see the body. My grandmother had alzheimers disease, so she would also ramble on and on about things that didn't have anything to do with what we were talking about. She also didn't understand that my father, whom had been my hero and the guy that I looked up to after my mother left after I was born, had died a little more than a month ago.

I took a deep breath and tried to walk by as quickly as I could, hoping my grandparents wouldn't notice. I had almost made it when "Lynda?". Darn.

"Hi grandma.." I said.

"Where have you been? We've been looking for you." she said.

"Grandma I told you that I'd be with my friends." I said.

"Why are you so dirty?" She said, completely ignoring what I had just said.

"Grandma it's 90 degrees outside and Iv'e been outside all day!" I was starting to get a bit annoyed.

"Oh Lyn...".

"Grandma I hafta go." I said as I started to walk away.

"Lynda?".

"Yes Grandma?".

"Where's your father?".

I felt a lump in my throat. Jeezus, I hated when she asked this. My father was still a very, very, very, sore subject for me. Again, he was my hero!

"Grandma, Daddy's dead..".

"Stop being silly. Where's your father at?".

"He's dead Grandma!" I choked away the tears and walked away to go back.

I got to my room and grabbed what I thought I needed. Sleeping bag, matches, a canteen, and whatever was left of my money. I still thought of my dad as I packed.

I had everything packed, [finally!] and ran back downstairs.

This time, when I passed the living room, my grandparents didn't try to stop me. But on my way out the door, I stopped and looked at the picture of my father. I felt a tear roll down my cheek as I kept walking. I wiped it away, but more kept coming.

* * *

><p>I was walking down the street with Gordie shortly I had left when Chris came down the road in a blue truck. "Here's alright!" he said as he hopped down. "Thanks!".<p>

"Gord-o!" he said.

"Hey Chris." he said.

"Wanna see something cool?" he asked.

"Sure what?" Gordie said.

"You alright Lynda?" Chris asked.

"Huh? Uh yeah, fine." I said.

"Come on you guys!" he said.

He started to run away from us. Gordie and I followed in close pursuit.

* * *

><p>"Chris, come on man what is it?" Gordie panted.<p>

"Oh man. You're not gonna believe this!".

"Come on man!" I yelled.

Chris finally stopped behind the Blue Point Diner.

* * *

><p>"Chris!... Chris come on man! What is it?" Gordie and I panted.<p>

"Come on you guys! This is really cool your gonna love it!" he said.

"Come on Chris, what is it?" Gordie yelled.

Chris finally stopped behind the Blue Point Diner.

"You guys wanna see something cool?" he repeated.

"YES!" Gordie and I said in unision.

He reached in his bed roll and... out came a gun. My eyes went wide.

"Walking talking jezus..." I said as I took the gun.

"Where'd you get it?".

"Hawked it from my old man! It's a 45." Chris said.

"I can see that.".

I pretened to fire at one of the trash cans.

"You got bullets for it?" Gordie asked.

"Yeah, took all that was left in the box. My dad'll think he used 'em shootin' beer cans." Chris said.

"Is it loaded?" I asked.

"Pppfftt! 'Course not! What do you think I am?" he said.

So, I cocked it... And pulled the trigger.

** KA-BLAM!**

"JEEZUS!" we screamed.

"Let's get outta here! Come on!" Gordie yelled.

We took off running with Chris cackling behind us.

"Ha! Ha! Lynda! Lynda Harris is shooting up Castle Rock! Ha!".

"SHUT UP!" I yelled.

A womans voice came behind us. "Hey who did that? Who's setting off cherry bombs out here?".

We stopped running at the front of the diner.

"Oh man you should've seen the look on your guyss faces! Man that was cool! That really was!" Chris said.

"You knew it was loaded you idiot!" I yelled. I was furious, and by looks of it, Gordie was too.

"We're gonna be in so much trouble now! That Tupper babe saw us!" Gordie said.

"God you guys she thought it was firecrackers!" Chris said.

"I don't care! That was a mean trick!" I said.

"Hey, I didn't know it was loaded." Chris said, and he grabbed my arm. "Honest.".

"Do you swear?" I said, shooting daggers at him.

"Yeah I swear." he said.

"On your mothers good name?" Gordie said.

"I swear!".

"Even if she goes... You know where cos you lied!" I said.

"Yes!".

"Pinky swear?" Gordie said.

"Pinky swear!".

That was good enough for me! I was about to say something when "Hey girls? How's it goin'?".

We turned and saw Ace Merill and Eyeball [Chris's older brother] walking out of the Blue Point Diner. Ace was the biggest jerk in Castle Rock. But with his blonde hair, and serious face, I had to admit he looked pretty good. Unlike Eyeball, whom always had a smirk on his face, and a black eye.

They walked closer towards us. Close enough to take Gordies hat off his head.

"Hey! Come on man! That's mine!" he yelled. Gordie tried so hard to get his hat back. But compared to Ace, Gordie had no chance.

"You're a real jerk you know that?" Chris said.

"Ooohh Eyeball your brothers not very nice, now is he?" Ace said, the cigarette in his mouth traveling from one side to the other.

"Give him his hat back Ace!" I said.

Ace stepped towards me, almost pinning me against the wall. He was about to say something when...

"Why don't you leave her alone you -". CHRIS! [thank you!]

"Now Christopher... I know you didn't mean to insult my friend." Eyeball said.

"I know he didn't mean to. That's why I'm going to give him the chance to take it back.".

Next moment, Chris was pinned on the ground, a cigarette butt just inches away from his face.

"Jezus..".

"Take it back." Ace said.

"Come on man let him go!" I yelled.

"Get off man! Christ!" Chris yelled.

"Come on you guys! Cut it out!" Gordie yelled. Lot of help we were...

"Take it back!" Ace repeated.

The cigarette butt was getting closer and closer to his face.

"Okay, okay! I take it back! I take it back!" Chris yelled.

"Good." Ace grabbed Chris and pushed him back to his feet.

"See you later girls!" Eyeball said.

Gordie watched hatefully as they walked away.

"Come on Gordie... It's okay." I said.

I grabbed his shoulder and he spun around. We walked away. Leaving the memory of Ace and Eyeball as we left.


End file.
